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Want to push a need for change in front of local politicians? Beginning today, January 21, Facebook will offer users a platform to create and sign petitions — and tag relevant politicians. Called Community Actions, the feature allows users to create, support, and share online petitions. Inside the new Community Actions, users can create their own petition or find a cause to support. If a friend shares a petition, the Community Action will also pop up in News Feeds. Users can also tag a politician or government agency to send a notification about the petition. The petition page also allows users to add posts or to follow the petition (without clicking the support button). Unlike reactions on news posts, there’s no way to dislike a petition outside of writing out a comment or creating an opposite campaign. Users can see how many people have signed the petition. While the list won’t include all the names, Facebook will display the names of those on your friends list as … [Read more...] about Facebook just added a petition tool. What could possibly go wrong?

Popular messaging app WhatsApp has been implementing ways to cut down the flow of fake news, mainly in India. Now, furthering this, the app has added a new limit for forwarding messages. According to a report by Reuters, users will be able to forward messages on WhatsApp to up to five users only.Victoria Grand, Vice President for policy and communications at WhatsApp said, “We’re imposing a limit of five messages all over the world as of today.” To recall, last year, WhatsApp started labeling forwarded messages as ‘Forwarded’ for a secure conversation. Previously, WhatsApp users could forward messages to up to 20 private chats and groups. For those who don’t know, the Facebook-owned app, back in July 2018, began testing a limit for forwarding messages on the app which is now public. Additionally, WhatsApp will also remove the quick forward button which rests next to the media messages. The update with new forward limits will be rolled from today … [Read more...] about WhatsApp Limits Message Forwarding To 5 Users To Tackle Fake News

Facebook executives reportedly think that The New York Times’ coverage of their company has turned unfairly negative. Part of that argument is correct. Sentiment in the Times’ coverage of Facebook has been, on average, almost exclusively negative since the 2016 elections, according to new data analyzed by researcher Joe Hovde, a full-time data analyst at a retail tech company. That’s a turnaround from the paper’s Facebook coverage in the four years leading up to Donald Trump’s election, and it has continued into this year. For the analysis, Hovde included stories with “Facebook” in the article headline and summary text, and then scored the surrounding words on a scale of -5 (very negative words like curses unlikely to show up in the Times) to +5 (extremely positive, using words like “superb” or “breathtaking”). This data was updated from one of his studies that was published in BuzzFeed last spring. Of course, there are … [Read more...] about Facebook thinks the New York Times’ coverage of it has gotten more critical. It has.

In the past few years, Facebook’s been concentrating on community-based features like Candidate Info and Town Hall to increase users’ engagement with local government and politics. In its latest move, it’ll roll out a petition feature you can use to create a campaign that other folks can support. TechCrunch, which got a sneak peek of the feature from the company, says that Facebook is aiming to focus this feature around local causes and on bringing them to the attention of government bodies in charge of them. The petition feature, which is called Community Actions, will start rolling out in the US from today. You can create an Action with a title and description, and tag the relevant authority or agency that can act on it. Other users can “support” the petition and share the cause to their feeds to help it gather momentum. Hard Fork? Hard Fork. HARD FORK You can only participate in the discussion about an action if you choose to support it. If … [Read more...] about Facebook now lets you create petitions for social causes

Facebook hasn’t given up on attracting teens. After numerous failed products aimed at teens — including LOL, Facebook Watch, and IGTV — the company is now hard at work on LOL, a meme hub of sorts meant to win the hearts and minds of teens fleeing for greener pastures at TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram. First reported by TechCrunch’s Josh Constine, LOL would bridge the gap of a traditional News Feed with meme-focused content that Facebook hopes will attract teen attention. Blockchain and cryptocurrency news minus the bullshit. Visit Hard Fork. CLICK IT For the 100 or so high schoolers currently testing it (each bound by NDA with parental consent), the feed replaces the Watch tab and includes GIF-like clips divided into categories like “For You” (*cough* Tik Tok’s main page), “Animals,” “Fails,” “Pranks,” and others. Users rate content with one of three reaction buttons — “Funny,” … [Read more...] about Facebook’s secretly working on LOL — a meme hub meant to lure teens from Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok